Delivery services, such as a postal service and/or a courier service offered by commercial carriers, provide delivery of goods, e.g., letters, packages, and parcels to recipients, such as residences and businesses across the country. A typical delivery service maintains a large fleet of vehicles, including airplanes and trucks to move packages between mail sorting facilities, and smaller vehicles for moving the packages from the sorting facilities to delivery destinations (for example, a home or business). Such delivery services have some drawbacks and may not be efficient in catering to the needs of the consumers and/or business today. For example, such delivery services involve significant investments in terms of money to procure and maintain the fleet of vehicles, and to manage the human resource required to operate the fleet. Another problem with such delivery services is that they may be incapable of delivering the goods in a short span of time, e.g., in a few minutes or hours from the time the order is placed by the consumer, or even if they can deliver the goods, it can be very expensive for the consumer.
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), such as a drone, has been used to deliver goods. The UAV can deliver goods instantaneously, e.g., within a few minutes or hours from the time the order is placed by the consumer. The UAV delivery service can overcome some of the problems discussed above with respect to the conventional delivery services, however it may still be problematic. To deliver the packages, some UAVs carry the package to a delivery location, and land in the delivery location to drop off the package. A UAV that is powered by a rotor or an impeller may be dangerous to pets or residents at the delivery location.
Some UAVs hover near the destination location at a safe distance from the ground, lower the package from the air onto the ground, e.g., by the means of a cable attached to the UAV, and lower the package on the ground. One problem with such delivery mechanism is that a coupling mechanism of the UAV for holding the package onto the cable and releasing the package from the cable when reaching the ground is very complex. The UAV has to have a separate communication cable running along the cable to which the package is attached, or have some other wireless means to communicate with the coupling mechanism to detach the package from the cable.
Another problem with such delivery mechanism is that when the cable is pulled by a person and/or an animal, or is tangled in an obstacle like a tree, it can bring the UAV down to the ground causing the UAV to be damaged and/or lost. It can also cause injury to the people and/or animals near the UAV. Thus, conventional aerial delivery device methods do not allow for safe, secure delivery of packages to delivery locations.